Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas: Toward a Global HistoryMain MenuThe Spanish PacificThe China Trade Era19th-Century US PacificTimelineby Andrea LedesmaGalleryCollection of all images, documents, and photos featured on this site.AcknowledgementsCaroline Franka1a5e7e9a2c3dba76ecb2896a93bf66ac8d1635e
Nicolai Copernicus's de Revolvtionibus orbium coelestium, 1543
12016-06-28T14:07:53-07:00Zachary Ziebell8eecdb2214ffc2e89ec5ed5f180953625d845cc784012First published in Nuremberg in 1543 (2nd edition pictured), the book presents Copernicus's heliocentric theory, a brave departure from the accepted Ptolemaic geocentric universe. See the book here.plain2016-09-02T09:24:44-07:00Andrea Ledesma3398f082e76a2c1c8a9101d91a66e1d764540d34
12016-02-26T12:37:38-08:00The First Dominicans in Las Filipinas6Cerveraplain2017-02-02T07:58:03-08:00Although the last of the four main religious order to arrive in Las Filipinas, in 1587, Dominicans, known as Order of Preachers, were the first dedicated to preaching to the sangley; therefore, they were the first to take learning Chinese seriously. Several learned to read and write Chinese in short order, sufficiently well to begin translating works between Spanish and Chinese. Like the Augustinians before them, Dominicans were also intellectually and scientifically inclined. Fray Miguel de Benavides founded the Royal and Pontificate University of Santo Tomás in Manila. It still stands today as a leading institution of higher learning in Manila, holding intact some of Benavides’s books that Dominicans were clearly using in the sixteenth century as they went about their missionary, educational, cultural and scientific work in Manila. They cover medicine, geography, mathematics, astronomy. One of the jewels is a copy of Copernicus’s De revolucionibus orbium coelestium, which had a great impact on the history of science and ideas in Europe. Only several copies of the first edition of this influential work, published in Nuremberg in 1543, exist in the world; one of these rare copies is located in the Santo Tomás library.
Other important works deposited by the Dominicans when they founded the university in the sixteenth century and still preserved in the library are:
Dioscorides. De Medica Materia. Cologne, 1529
Vigo, Giovanni. Practica in Arte Chirurgica. Lyon, 1534
Strabon. Geographicum. Libri XVII. Basel, 1539
Lobera de Avila, Luys. Remedio del Cuerpo Humano. Alcalá de Henares, 1542
Copernicus, Nicolaus. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium. Nuremberg, 1543
Galenus Pergamenus. De Alimentorum Facultatibus Libri Tres. Lyon, 1549
Strabon. De Situ Orbis (Graece et Latine). Book XVII. Basel, 1549
Montaña de Monserrato, Bernardino. Libro de Anothomia del Hombre. Valladolid, 1551